Random reflections on culture, life and the Universe.
Warning: will regularly include Scottish actors.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

BM there were other Summer Sundae 2009 treats (Friday)

Before Monotonix blew us away, there had been many other treats at Summer Sundae 2009 not least of which was the arrival of George coming all the way from Aberdeen (via Barnsley) to join us for much of the festival. Some of the musical treats will get their own posts (Múm for Friday for sure!), but here are the other delights and observations that we took in at Summer Sundae on the first day.

Friday 14 August 2009

Echolocation -- a local band by force of where they live but not where they come from: very amusing, with a wry engagement with the audience. Kinda inspired by the likes of The Fall with a poetic social commentary style of delivery.

Blk Jks -- from Johannesburg. Should have been interesting but essentially guitar rock played by 4 black South Africans. Okay, but nothing revolutionary.

My Latest Novel -- better, certainly the most enjoyable act of the Friday to that point with some grand harmonies.

Oi Va Voi -- although we really only saw them from the vantage of the real ale tent, these were very entertaining with a folksy, East European feel to their music. Especially liked the hot young women* playing fiddle and singing.

Gold Panda -- a late and quite frankly awful repleacement for the withdrawal of Fanfarlo. Boy in gold hoodie** spinning 'discs': yawn. This was the swine flu absence I was bothered about.

Ash Grunwald -- Australian with a spikey sense of humour (is that always the case?!) and some very neat guitar grooves

Beardyman -- Moved up to the main stage from the Indoor stage due to the reshuffle caused by The Streets late withdrawal (again thanks to Swine Flu). Hilariously, many of the posters around the site announcing 'Unfortunately, The Streets have had to cancel...' were quickly defaced to read 'Fortunately...'. I really wasn't fussed either way frankly.

Anyway! If you're going to be a boy spinning discs, then at least be interesting about it. Beardyman, with his human beatbox tendencies, sharp choice in music selections and crowd-winning engagement with his audience managed far better than the panda. Lesson noted I hope.

Wild Beasts -- they were okay... maybe they just sounded more interesting on the radio (I'm sure their session performances promised better than this)

Dan Black -- mystifyingly popular with teenage girls, and with a few tracks I did recognise from 6Music***. Entertaining enough but man, stop with 'da moves' and tuck your bloody t-shirt in!

Mystery Jets -- last year's late no-shows (though this was utterly forgiveable as lovely Blaine Harrison was seriously poorly in hospital) so eagerly anticipated by me. Although it was a very sweet and enjoyable set, I really was only there for one song and additionally was hyper aware we all wanted to get good positional slots for seeing Múm over in the now more distantly located Rising Stage.****

Anyway, since the Mystery Jets peformed 'Half In Love With Elizabeth' as their second track, it was pretty inevitable that the one I really wanted would come near the end. Nevertheless, when Two Doors Down did strike up I couldn't help but giggle inside and it was nice to hear it live at last.

Altogether now:

I think I'm in love with the girl next door, it's driving me crazy can't take it any moreI hear her playing the drums late at night, the neighbours complain but that's the kinda girl I like

And after that frothiness, it was off for Icelandic loveliness and electronic sound and stringscapes courtesy of Múm!

* We will gloss over that we heard some photographers discussing their pics so far and one considering whether the lead girl from Oi Va Voi was a Monet ("looks good from a distance")

**** Previously the Rising Stage was a smaller tent located just outside the De Montford Hall indoor stage. This meant that the distance between all four main stages was negligable, a matter of about 1 minutes walk. To allow for a much bigger Rising Stage and slightly larger festival site, this year saw Rising relocated to behind the War memorial. Still, it's only a five minute walk which makes tramping the Glasto fields seem like a marathon distance between stages!

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